


Mentats Well Spent

by evilRevan



Series: Papa Hancock [2]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Children, Fluff, Gen, Kids and Hancock, Papa Hancock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 04:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5483495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilRevan/pseuds/evilRevan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grape Mentats were Hancock's favored drug. If anything he relished every purple pill which laid inside his tins. Almost nothing was worth wasting them... almost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mentats Well Spent

A small girl raced down the reinforced house squealing in delight while her tiny hands pressed an over sized Tricorn hat over wild, unkempt red hair poking out from underneath. 

“I got his hat! I got it!” The little girl screeched in glee, sharply rounding around a corner and skittering into a hastily furnished room with two beds and a dresser. A black haired boy shot straight up from his bed- dark freckles dotting his browned skin as a silly goofy grin spread across his face in unbridled glee.

The two of them tried on the hat- taking turns and pretending to be the man who was sitting in the other room- faking being asleep through the whole ordeal. Hancock noticed the six year old creep up next to him, opening his eye just a smidgen to see her rocking back forth near him- chubby hands greedily reaching up to his hat. Not wanting to scare her and help out at the same time he shifted his head to the side- faking a loud snore to allow his hat to fall off and land right by the chair. Elated she snatched it and fled the scene to boast to the other kid she had been found with.

A soft chuckle arose followed by a nearly quiet click of the door closing. “Going soft, Hancock?” Anari tiptoed through what she claimed was the living room, happily sinking into a dirty cushioned chair beside him, eyes brimming with amusement and contentment.

A hand waved in the air dismissively, “I was giving the kid a break.” Hancock tried his best to appear annoyed. But like always Anari knew when he was joking around. 

Another chuckle slipped through her lips. “ _Righttt_ …” She flashed a knowing smirk at him. 

Two squeals interrupted whatever rebuke Hancock could try to muster. Wiping away the fake look of annoyance pride mixed in with a bit of gentleness sprung out from the smile upon his scarred lips. 

“You know if anyone other than you said that, they’d be dead.”

“I still remember Finn.”

“Good. He was an _dick_.”

There was silence as Anari let loose an exasperated sigh, the ghoul silently cursing as he knew he’d have to put a Mentat in what Anari called the ‘swear jar’ for the slip up. It was halfway full and the kids had only been around for three months. 

Miffed he lazily headed towards the back of the house, plucked the box of mentaxs out of his pocket and unhappily shook it until a single oddly colored pill fell into a jar. Shoving it back in the pocket of his frock he trudged back to his spot- glaring at the raven haired woman who instilled the rule when the kids appeared. And ultimately- _stayed_ with them. 

Not that either of them seemed to mind given the situation the kids had been found in. The red head had horrible gashes down her back from a ghoul attack and the boy… well he was lucky to still be alive after the head trauma he sustained trying to run away only for his skull to crack against the floor in a puddle of blood. Tiny little six year old had pulled him under a crib and used it as protection. It was the only thing that had saved them until they came across them. Neither would have survived the night. Eventually with the ghouls hounding them. Eventually they would have smelled the blood followed it and… well, they would be another cruel reminder the wastelands wasn’t fit for anyone who couldn’t fight back. Didn’t mean people couldn’t fix that sick and twisted mentality.

Hell, the kids screamed when they say Hancock appear behind Anari- handing her stimpacks to help stitch together their wounds. How on earth they went from hiding from him to actively trying to wear his when he pretended to sleep or even talk to him was a mystery all in itself. He sighed forgetting about the ordeal busying his hands with a pack of cigarettes, tapping the bottom in just the right way a lose cigarette fell out smoothly into his hand. 

On instinct he barely remembered lighting the end, taking a long drag and… releasing a puff of smoke out his mouth. 

There was no rules against drugs in the house- so long as the kids didn’t grab any laying about. Which both of them were careful about. Hancock always kept his stash on him and Anari locked the rad-away and med-x in a lock-box when they weren’t doing missions for the minutemen. It was an unspoken rule between them if any of the kids tried to take any sort of drug to grab it and explain to them why it was dangerous for them. Hancock was fine with people using them, just not kids. Lot of shit could go horrible wrong with too much mentat, buffout… or even jet. Not a pretty sight.

The kids continued to be in awe of his hat in their room- arguing playfully who would be the one to hide it on him. “Might want to get your hat back or you’re never going to see it.”

“Right. But if they run out of the room screaming, I did nothing.” With a quick motion the cigarette was snuffed out just before he ventured down the hall and around a corner out of sight. Screeches erupted not even a second after he left Anari’s line of vision. The freckled boy by the name of Dave sprinted into the living room, dived behind her chair and peered over the edge. There wasn’t any fear lingering in his eyes. This was a game of run away from Hancock before he could grab you.

“Spitfire you’re gonna need to be faster next time.” Both Anari and Dave watched as Hancock came into view with the tiny redhead sitting on his shoulders with the biggest shit eating grin on her face, the very same one Hancock sported. 

Jean, aka spitfire, still had the over sized hat over her head- brown eyes peeking out from under the rim. “How about I take that, scamp? I seem to be missing mine at the moment.” Tiny hands lifted the leather hat off her head and down onto Hancock’s, giggling madly.

His brow creased, raising what would have been an eyebrow if he had one inquisitively at the little girl. “Something funny?” Of course both he and Anari knew the reason.

Flashing a smile and giggling she joyfully explained, “I took your hat! Th-thats why you don have one!” 

Playing along Hancock pretended to have been outsmarted by the tiny tyke. “Well that might have been why I woke up without. Didn’t hear you comin’.” His words brought forth an even bigger grin from her as pride swelled in her eyes, the giggling flooding out like a dam. 

Dave crept out from his spot behind the chair and stood right in front of Hancock: relaxed, eager, and trusting. A far cry from three months ago.

His larger hands tugged at Hancock’s sleeve, trying to get the giant- in his eyes- to look down at him. The ghoul did. With just a look he slipped Jean off his shoulders, grabbed his hat, and placed it on the older kid’s head. Just like with Jean the edge of the hat slipped over his eyes. It was too big for both of them. But they had some growing to do.

“Just don’t get it ruined, alright?” 

Both kids nodded enthusiastically before bolting out the door to go pester the rest of the residents of Sanctuary.

Plopping himself back in the seat that genuine sweet smile still didn’t wipe away. “I can sacrifice a few mentats for that any day.”

**Author's Note:**

> I take no responsibly for the fact that his swear jar is literally half way full of Mentats. I just went with one person's suggest of instead of a swear jar of caps, just mentats. Alllll the mentats.


End file.
